Jul 07, 2008

Proto Monday >> Jon Burgerman's Heroes of Burgertown

Hope you all had a great Fourth of July. Today we've got an absolutely packed Proto Monday courtesy of Jon Burgerman. Just the thing to get us all over a holiday 'hump' day and the usual Monday blahs. Jon is bringing his mastery of doodles to the blind-box scene with his upcoming Heroes of Burgertown minis due to drop September 25th, 2008 from Kidrobot.

We're stoked to bring you an exclusive look at five of the sculpts from the upcoming series. The raw sculpts are the first and probably most important step in ensuring an accurate translation from source art to toy. Jon paid particular attention to the sculpting to avoid what he sees as a pitfall with toy design, "There's a lot of vinyl out there that you could imagine have all been created by the same artists because they all stick to the same conventions of the form". As you can see in the series of pics of Coco Face (above), Jon's worked hard to ensure that the figures retain his hand-drawn style and do not appear "too perfectly polished and symmetrical."

So what's in a name? Here are Jon's thoughts on 'Heroes':

The premise for the series is that each character has been made into a toy as a reward for their achievements in Burgertown. There's a different reason as to why each has been awarded, most however can hardly really be called heroic. It's a gentle jab at the cult of celebrity and how it's the dubious accomplishments that usually get rewarded with recognition. You've got to wonder why certain people are put on a pedestal and heralded as people to aspire to. In turn it makes us reflect on our own society and culture.

If you're a fan of Jon's work, you'll likely recognize several of the figures. Jon explains, "The characters featured in the series have existed for many years and have appeared through-out my artwork, print work and online, so it's great to collect them altogether in one place for the first time. " We've been excited about this series since Jon sent over the pics -- can't wait to see more. Speaking of more -- we've got pics of four more Heroes of Burgertown sculpts after the jump. Enjoy.